


The Last One Alive

by griffindork93



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-03
Updated: 2017-02-21
Packaged: 2017-12-28 08:20:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 15,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/989828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/griffindork93/pseuds/griffindork93
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sakura is the last living member of the Fabled Legendary Team 7. A story told in a recollection of flashbacks about how Team 7 met its end. Be warned, tragedy and character deaths await any who choose to click the link.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Sakura hid in the back of the classroom, cloaked in a simple genjutsu. The only one able to see her was the sensei. If the children knew she would be present, a few of them might have been able to sense her.

She was waiting for the sensei to introduce. At the request of the Academy teachers, who went all the way to the Council when she refused them, Sakura agreed to tell the story of the Legendary Team Seven. She had told the story to hundreds of hopeful shinobi over the years. For many it was discouraging, they dropped out to pursue life as a civilian.

For Sakura, that was the only reason she did as ordered. If not for the fact that her story prevented the death of children, she would have continued to refuse.

That did not mean, however, that the story got any easier to tell. If anything, each year it was harder for her to speak, to relive the memories. 

Team Seven’s story was one of impossible accomplishments and terrible misfortune. Tragedy followed them like Kirigakure’s special ANBU hunter-nin’s chased after missing-nins. Its presence was ever looming, threatening to take away all that the held dear and precious and destroy them.

“Here with us today is Sakura Uzumaki.” The sensei had to wait for the students’ shouts and excitement to calm down before he continued. “Yes, I know you’ve all been looking forward to this, but let’s behave. Listen closely and ask questions, because you will have to turn in a report.”

The children groaned. Sakura walked to the center of the room and removed her genjutsu, causing them to scream. She talked above their whispers of “how did she do that?”

“My name is Sakura Uzumaki. My story, Team Seven’s story, started like any other team, for the first three minutes. Then everything changed. There were crushing expectations on our team, to shine brilliantly or go down in a blazing fire.

“It started when we were first assigned to a team. The broody last Uchiha devoted only to getting the power he needed to kill his brother. The orphaned son, at the time unknown, of the Fourth Hokage, who held the Kyuubi inside him. And a pink haired girl enamored with the lifestyle and a boy that had no idea what it meant to be a shinobi”

The students listened, riveted by the simple beginning of what history labeled the greatest team in the world. Sakura’s words drew them in like moths to a flame, even the sensei who had heard the story eight times already with previous classes.

Sakura spun her tale, telling of their sensei that was always late and a chronic liar. Kakashi had refused to train them seriously until they acknowledged that being a shinobi was not a game, an event that did not happen until Team Seven’s mission to wave. Their first mission outside the village’s walls had proved that being unprepared would get you killed. Sakura had thought Sasuke had died that day.

She told of how the most important part of a team was not your individual strength, but the ability to work together. Teamwork could make or break a team. It nearly broke Team Seven. Sasuke had been arrogant, refusing to work with the dead last and the talentless girl. Naruto had been brash, always trying to get her attention while she was focused on Sasuke, and constantly trying to prove that he was better than the Uchiha. 

And she had been useless. She hadn’t taken training seriously in the academy, and so she was woefully unprepared for the level of training Kakashi had given them. Her warning struck a chord in the kunoichi. It was well known every team of three had one female on the team. It was also well known that it was usually the female that was the first to perish.

Sakura continued, detailing their disastrous first chuunin exam, their only one as a team, that ended with Konoha’s invasion and the murder of the Sandaime Hokage, and ultimately the breaking of Team Seven. Sasuke had succumbed to his mark, choosing to flee the village for Orochimaru. Naruto left to train with the second of the Sannin, after he had brought back Lady Tsunade to be sworn in as the Fifth Hokage, and Sakura took it upon herself  to become stronger, under the last of the Sannin, so that she and Naruto could save Sasuke together.

Her story picked up pace, quickly going through the highlights of the next three years, covering both the good, Naruto’s return, Sasuke killing Orochimaru, their rescue of the Kazekage, and the bad, Pein’s invasion, Danzou’s temporary stint as Hokage, Sasuke’s official declaration as a missing-nin, to be tracked and killed, all the way up to the war.

“The real story begins with the Fourth Great Shinobi War.”


	2. Chapter 1

“I won’t bore you with the details. Your sensei will cover the war in depth in your last year. Truth be told, I didn’t care about Madara’s plan to trap the world in a genjutsu. At really down times during the war, when all I was doing was burying comrades and desperately racing to save patients, I wondered if Team Seven would be together in that imaginary world.”

“But why did you fight if you weren’t trying to stop Madara?” one girl asked.

Sakura smiled wistfully. “I fought to protect Naruto. Even if I didn’t care if Madara’s vision came to pass, he would have had to kill Naruto to do so.”

Many of the girls aw’d and cooed, thinking that Sakura was only fighting to protect the man she loved. The pinkette quickly corrected their assumptions.

“The first lesson Kakashi-sensei taught Team Seven was to never abandon a comrade. Team Seven had closer bonds than any other team. We were more like a family for the short time we were together. Dysfunctional, but a family. It was the reason Naruto and I refused to give up on Sasuke. And it was our bonds that helped Sasuke see that revenge would only bring him pain.”

* * *

_It was the second time Sakura nearly lost someone she loved._

_The first had been Kakashi-sensei during Pein’s invasion of Konoha. He had actually perished that day. Only Naruto’s talk with Pein had brought him back to her. But for the longest time she could only cradle the cooling body of her sensei as tears ran down her face._

_This time she nearly lost Sasuke. Even if she was unsure of her feelings for the man, after all, he had tried seriously to kill her, Sakura refused to lose a member of Team Seven._

_They could not lose Sasuke after they just got him back._

_She hadn’t wanted to believe that Sasuke could possibly side with Madara, that he was in cohorts with the enemy to destroy their village. Sasuke had lost himself on his path for revenge._

_“Why wouldn’t I want the village destroyed?” He had replied when Naruto demanded to know why he was doing this. “Look what Konoha did to my brother!”_

_Sasuke’s righteous fury had confused her. She hadn’t been filled in on the dark and dirty secrets of the truth of the Uchiha Massacre until much later._

_For what seemed like eternity to Sakura, caught up in this grudge match between Naruto and Sasuke, she feared that Sasuke would see them all burn._

_And then Sasuke did the unexpected. Breaking away from his fight with Naruto, he had slid his Sword of Kusanagi into Madara’s heart all the way up to its black hilt._

_“Itachi sacrificed everything for Konoha. What made you think I would ever destroy the village he gave his life for? You shouldn’t have trusted me.”_

_“Yes, we Uchihas are quite prone to betrayals, aren’t we?”_

_It only took Sakura a second to understand the ancient Uchiha’s intention. But she couldn’t prevent Sasuke being pierced by the familiar wooden beams Yamato-taichou wielded._

* * *

“You can’t stop there!” the class complained. “What happened to Sasuke? Did you save him?”

“Saving Sasuke wasn’t easy. It took a team of six medical ninja to repair the internal damage he suffered; the number of times he flat lined that night. And even then he had been left with a few scars. I exhausted myself that night. Ended up spending three days in my own hospital.

“Sasuke was brought back to Konoha. After years of chasing after him he was finally coming home. Lady Tsunade cleared him of all charges, after gleefully telling him that he would be restarting his career as a gennin. Team Seven celebrated. We thought that all our troubles were over, but they were only just beginning.”


	3. Chapter 2

“Sasuke was always a prideful person. In his skills. In his abilities. He didn’t know the meaning of modesty. He certainly never displayed it. It was one of his many flaws.”

“How is pride a flaw?”

Sakura eyed the boy that had spoken. He gave off the same aura she sensed from prodigies. And his posture screamed confidence. “You’re top of the class, aren’t you.” She said. The boy nodded, stunned. 

“Sasuke was too. He felt himself so far above the rest of us, superior because of his clan, his bloodline, that he didn’t work well on a team. Sasuke was too independent. Because of his pride he readily angered when Naruto or I would learn something faster than he did, and then he would struggle on his own, too stubborn to ask for help.

“A lot of Team Seven’s misfortune could have been avoided if he asked for help even once.” Sakura sighed heavily. Maybe if he had asked for more training he would have been strong enough to stay in the village.

“That pride also made it hard for Sasuke to assimilate back into the village.”

* * *

_Sasuke kicked a pebble down Konoha’s empty street. His meeting with the Hokage had taken many hours and night had fallen. In the end, the last Uchiha would have an ANBU guard on him for a year. Tsunade didn’t feel the need to restrict him to the village. By claiming that Sasuke was still a gennin because he had not taken or passed a chuunin exam since his first one, he would only be able to do simple D-rank missions around Konoha._

_Naruto threw his arm over the dark haired man’s shoulder. “Ne, don’t worry about it Sasuke. It’s just a rank. It won’t stop me from becoming the Sixth Hokage. I’ll be the first ever gennin Hokage!”_

_Sasuke scowled at him._

_“There will probably be a chuunin exam soon.” She offered. “With all the losses from the war, every village is going to need to fill in their ranks.”_

_“Yeah, teme! We can take it together.”_

_“Aa. Team Seven taking another chuunin exam. Hopefully there won’t be an invasion this time.”_

_Naruto’s laughed echoed down the street. Sakura smiled happily, pleased that Sasuke was joking around and actually wanted to be a part of Team Seven again._

_“You didn’t know? Sakura-chan’s a chuunin. She has been for over a year now. Ne, Sakura-chan, are you going to try for jounin?”_

_Naruto’s question was innocent. Sakura hadn’t really thought about the jounin exams. They were unique to each village, not open to all like the chuunin exams, and they were only held once a year in Konoha. And to be quite frank, she was afraid what type of exam her sadist of a shishou would design; she thought dodge rock was an acceptable training method._

_However, anger flared in Sasuke’s onyx eyes._

* * *

“Why was Sasuke so angry? It was just the chuunin exams. Did he really expect you to sit around the village and do nothing while he ran off to get his revenge?”

Sakura rolled her eyes fondly. “Sasuke said for years that he had broken the bonds he shared with us. But our team wouldn’t let him, and he truly didn’t want to lose them. Team Seven wasn’t just teammates. We were family. All of them orphaned with tragic pasts, and I balanced them being the normal girl from a civilian family. 

“I think Sasuke always planned to return to Konoha. And he expected us to be waiting at the front gate to welcome him back. I suppose he thought we would pick up where we left off. But with the news that I was a chuunin. . . his pride reared its ugly head.”

The rosette quieted as she recalled how he took to ignoring her. Not even a day back in the village and Sasuke reverted to their gennin days. “Sasuke trained obsessively after that. Mostly with Naruto and Kakashi. Not once did he ask to train with me. He refused to be treated by me in the hospital. His pride was breaking our team apart again, and we had only just glued the pieces back together

“Kakashi started hiding behind his porn, placating Sasuke occasionally. Naruto was being run ragged between taking over some of Tsunade’s duties in preparation to be Hokage and trying to spend time with both of us when Sasuke refused to be in my presence. In the end I decided to pull away, distance myself from my team. I took extra shifts at the hospital and was soon spending more time there than I was at home.

“The next time I saw Sasuke was three months later.”


	4. Chapter 3

“It was no surprise to me that when I finally did see Sasuke it was for a mission. Tsunade had decided three months was enough and she could finally put him to work. I think she must have been drunk when she sent the two of us to renew Konoha’s treaty with Suna.”

The children laughed at her dry wit. The Fifth Hokage’s drinking habits were infamous.

* * *

_Sakura did her best to observe her dark haired teammate unnoticed out of the corner of her eye. His skin was a sickly white color and there were purple shadows under his eyes._

_Her fingers twitched, wanting to ghost over his skin and see what was wrong._

_“Good, you’re both here.” Tsunade slurred. Sakura broke position, stepping forward to swipe her bottle of sake out of the woman’s hand._

_The blonde glared at her from under lidded eyes. “I’m sending you two to Suna. It’s time to renegotiate the peace treaty.”_

_Sakura bit her lip harshly. She was sending Sasuke to keep peace between two nations? Sasuke Uchiha, the man that attacked Kumo to retrieve Killer Bee on a diplomatic mission. Gaara was going to rip him to shreds twice. Once, for all the pain he caused Naruto and a second time because it would put him in his place. This was going to be a disaster._

_“Uchiha, this is your chance to prove your loyalty to Konoha. Show that you’ve turned over a new leaf.” Tsunade pulled out a second bottle from her secret alcohol stash, that Shizune emptied every week, and drank deeply. “Talks will probably take about two weeks.”_

_The Godaime made a motion with her hand, her elbow planted on the desk and hand hanging limply at the wrist and she moved it like she was brushing off a fly, dismissing them._

_Sasuke left immediately, sparing the shortest of glances for his pink haired teammate that strode towards the Hokage to take a large pile of paperwork into her arms. Sakura sat at a small desk in the corner and set to work forging her drunken shishou’s signature and summarizing mission reports._

_The pair set out for Suna before the sun rose, hoping to get most of the way there before the desert heat kicked in. Very little was spoken between them._

_Suna’s gate guards let them pass right through to a waiting Temari. The kunoichi brought them straight to the Kazekage’s office, and Sakura would swear blind that Sasuke was briefly stunned to see Gaara wearing the hat._

_Gaara rose from behind his desk to greet Sakura with a hug. She had spent a lot of time with the red head during the war, and thanks to her part in saving Kankuro and her saving his life once on the field, she and Gaara had built a strong friendship._

_He handed her a scroll with the suggested new terms and Sakura spent the night pouring over it, crossing out several clauses and adding a few of her own. Most of it focused on trade of food. Konoha had fertile farms and didn’t charge the exorbitant rates the Land of Rice because Konoha had other means of generating income._

_Sasuke’s eyes bore into her as she muttered over the scroll, phrases like “ridiculous demand and they know it,” and “Tsunade would never agree to that,” and “they must be out of their minds to have included that,” fell from her lips._

_Dark eyes bore into her back. “You’ve been avoiding me,” he accused._

_“I’ve been busy, Sasuke. The hospital has been in a state of complete disarray and. .  .”_

_“You’ve been avoiding me. Why?”_

_“Because you’ve been irrationally angry with me!” Sakura snapped. “You wouldn’t talk to me, wouldn’t let me heal your injuries, and generally wanted nothing do with me ever since Naruto let slip that I was a chuunin. It was easier to just stop coming because we’d get nothing done. What does it really matter? It’s only on paper and I’m sure you could be a jounin.”_

_Sasuke remained silent. “You’re so annoying!” she huffed. His lips quirked upwards._

_“Aa.”_

* * *

“Sasuke’s easy agreement had thrown me. He was never one to admit his faults. The whole situation had gotten out of hand. Yes, he had been angry, but it wasn’t at me. Sasuke was angry at himself and the situation. He had said once during our gennin days that my skills were worse than Naruto’s and he had just been proven wrong. And he was angry that he had to wait an undetermined amount of time before he could move up through the ranks.

“And a small part of him was angry at me. For leaving him behind. The night he left I professed my love for him, offered to leave with him.”

Many students gasped. “Sasuke saw underneath the simple words, hearing the silent promise to always be there for him.”

“So he was angry not because you were a chuunin before him, but because you wouldn’t be getting the rank with him and Naruto.”

“Exactly.” Sakura nodded at the young girl who blushed from the praise. “Sasuke’s feelings are complicated. On one hand, he was angry that I didn’t wait for him to come back so we could take it together, but on the other hand, he would have been angry if I wasn’t a chuunin. As the only member of Team Seven that didn’t leave the village, it would have been pretty shameful if I was still a gennin.

“Our two weeks in Suna were much more pleasant with that issue solved. Until he learned that Suna imprisoned Team Hebi.”


	5. Chapter 4

“Despite all his harsh words and multiple threats to our lives, Sasuke was incapable of breaking the bonds Team Seven shared. In the same manner, he couldn’t cut his ties with Team Hebi either.”

“Team Hebi?” a girl repeated.

“Team Hebi, Team Snake, named so because all its members were given special abilities by Orochimaru. It was a team built of necessity, so Sasuke could hunt down and kill his brother. Suigetsu’s body was literally made of water and he could liquefy to avoid harm. Juugo had the unique ability to absorb natural energy. And Karin was both a sensor and a healer.

“It was the perfect team to track down Itachi. Along the way Team Hebi built bonds as strong as the ones Team Seven shared. Sasuke hadn’t known what had become of his second team after the war, but he was pissed to learn that they had been Suna’s captives for three months.”

* * *

_Sasuke’s body stiffened._

_He had been standing behind Sakura’s chair as she squabbled with Suna’s Elders and advisors over the recent version of their treaty. The whole procedure was mind numbing, and as he watched silently, he couldn’t imagine Naruto sitting in Sabaku’s place. Naruto and patience didn’t belong in the same sentence. Or book really._

_But then one of them had asked what Konoha planned to do about the captives._

_“What captives?” Sakura asked sharply. “You made no mention of Konoha shinobi being held prisoner.”_

_Judging by the Kazekage’s stern look of disproval and the other council members’ alarm, that knowledge was not supposed to be shared._

_“Who of our shinobi have you illegally held?” Ice coated her voice._

_The one that had spoken originally pointed at Sasuke in fear. “They were with him.”_

_Sakura mentally prayed to every deity that Sasuke didn’t leap over the table and behead the foolish councilman. She pressed the council into a corner. “You have Team Hebi, consisting of Suigetsu Houzuki, Karin, and Juugo, in your custody. Why was Konoha not informed?”_

_“They’re not Konoha shinobi!” One blustered. Sakura speared him with a withering glare._

_“Regardless of their affiliation, all villages are to be notified when prisoners of war are taken in the event that their village is willing to negotiate for their release.”_

_With Suna clearly in the wrong, Sakura demanded, and got, the immediate release of Team Hebi._

_As they were walking back to their inn Sasuke thanked her. It was the second time he had done so. At least this time she knew what she had done to warrant the word and wasn’t going to be left on a stone bench._

_“Don’t thank me yet. Tsunade-shishou is not going to be happy about me bringing back three criminal ninja. She’s going to kill me for making more paperwork for her.”_

* * *

“Did the Fifth Hokage really kill you?”

“Of course she didn’t you idiot. She’s standing right in front of us.” 

The first boy turned to face the boy that scoffed at him. “But Tsunade-sama was capable of medical miracles. She could revive the dead.”

“That’s impossible.”

The class’s sensei cut off their verbal fight. “Settle down.”

Sakura couldn’t stop a smile from forming. The two boys reminded her so much of Naruto and Sasuke when they were gennin. “Now, there are ways to bring those that have died back to life. Chiyo-sama revived the Kazekage once, after his Bijuu had been removed, and there were many people who could use Edo Tensei to reanimate the dead. But Tsunade wasn’t one of them.

“She didn’t kill me, but at the time, the punishment she gave me made me wish she had.”


	6. Chapter 5

“What did she do to you?” a curious gennin asked. “What punishment is worse than death?”

Sakura sighed. How long had she held onto that childish naivety? That the worst that could happens was dying. She had learned there were much worse things over the years.

“Dying is not a punishment.” Sakura corrected. “Death is the world’s one certainty. It tolls for everyone, and earlier for shinobi. Death is release, freedom. It’s preferable to fighting a war with no end, to losing all those around you.”

The children quieted at her prose. Sakura decided to move away from the morbid topic. She had plenty of depressing stories to share. 

“Tsunade, in her infinite wisdom, decided since I was so determined to have Team Hebi freed and brought back to Konoha, that it was my responsibility to look after them. Which, in vindictive woman speak,” several girls giggled here as boys looked at them nervously, “that any trouble they caused would be put on my record and I would pay for any damage.”

* * *

_“You’ve got to be kidding me. I’ve must have drunk more than I thought. Sakura, please tell me that the three brats standing behind Uchiha are a drunken hallucination?”_

_Sakura winced at her shishou’s honey sweet tone, knowing she was in for it. “So, shishou. Suna was holding them captive since the end of the war. I couldn’t leave them there.”_

_She blamed her heart, soft to the core. Sakura hated the idea of people suffering, and that extended to include misguided subordinates of Orochimaru that had no place to go besides Sasuke. “They came at no cost to Konoha,” she felt the need to add._

_Tsunade’s eyes narrowed at her apprentice. They may have come at no cost from Suna, but the same could not be said for the other villages._

_“I will accept them on one condition. They will be limited to the same restrictions as Sasuke.”_

_Team Hebi, who had laughed uproariously, complained, or sympathized, with Sasuke’s punishment immediately protested. Each of them was at least chuunin when a part of Sound. Only Juugo wasn’t complaining about be demoted to gennin, but Sakura got the feeling that he didn’t really want to be a ninja. At least not in the true assassin of the night, cold blooded killer manner. He was a really gentle soul that dislike killing and fought to protect Sasuke because he could control Juugo’s enraged state._

_“Enough. That is my decision. If you don’t like it, feel free to go shack up with your old master.”_

_Suigetsu and Karin paled at the indirect threat on their lives and hurried to agree to the Hokage’s terms._

_“Sakura, all four of them will be rooming with you.”_

_“Shishou! I don’t have enough room in my apartment for . . . did you say four?” Sakura blinked. “I have to put up Sasuke too?”_

_She had avoided looking at her one time crush since they stepped in the office, seeing as she wasn’t as confident as she had pretended to be that Tsunade would welcome his second team into the village. Glancing at him out of the corner of her eye, Sakura was afraid that he would be angry, being forced to move out of his apartment._

_Surprisingly, Sasuke didn’t look annoyed at the idea. In fact, she thought she might have caught a slight upward tilt of his lips._

_“And you will be moving into one of the inconspicuous safe houses along the village’s wall so that they’re well out of the way. You’ll be held responsible for any misbehavior, damage to training grounds or other village property, or any other crimes they commit.” Tsunade said cheerfully._

_Sakura sagged at that announcement. Considering Sasuke went out of his way to find new teammates exactly like his old ones in personality, there was no way they could all live under the same roof and expect the building to remain standing. Especially not once Naruto, Kakashi, Sai, and Yamato caught wind of it. Naruto would be demanded they all move in too and be one big happy Team Seven family._

_She could already imagine the fights._

_“And Sakura,” the busty Hokage called as the five were exiting her office, “you have to pay their bounties.”_

* * *

“She made you pay their bounties?” one student repeated incredulously. “That’s totally unfair.”

“Sasuke thought so too,” the pinkette remarked. “He had to catch me when I fainted and carried me to our new home for nine months. When I woke again he told me that Tsunade was quite possibly the cruelest of the three Sannin.”

“But wasn’t it bad enough she was making you completely responsible for them?”

“Tsunade hates paperwork.” Sakura said simply, causing many students to facepalm. “By bringing them back, I would have caused international issues with the villages they attacked and abandoned to join Orochimaru. By paying them the bounties as reparations, they were happy to let the matter slid. 

“Still, it killed my savings and caused me a lot of overtime. But paying it off was easier than dealing with Karin.”


	7. Chapter 6

Sakura couldn’t keep the irritation off her face as she thought of the red head that had been distantly related to Naruto. 

Karin’s constant advances on Sasuke and shrill screeching whenever Sakura, Naruto, Sai, Kakashi, or Suigetsu had said anything resembling an insult to him had made her feel deeply sorry for Sasuke for having to put up with her and Ino and a dozen other girls during their academy days.

If one ignored his surly attitude and bastard-ish tendencies, Sasuke had both the looks and the skills to earn well deserved admiration. 

Admittedly, her fangirling was well over that line.

But she had toned it down a long time before Sasuke came home.

Karin, on the other hand, held fast to the belief that the last Uchiha was actually interested in her.

* * *

_Sakura thought it might be because she had breasts she could flaunt. Or maybe because she had actually proved to be of use to Sasuke when he was still assholishly tracking down his wronged brother._

_Whatever the reason, Karin refused to admit that Sasuke wanted nothing to do with her romantically and raised hell any time a member of Team Seven attempted to defend their avenger’s honor._

_One time, when she had gotten exasperated with the other woman’s never ending monologue of how she and Sasuke would make the strongest babies ever seen, Sakura had soundly slapped the woman._

_The pinkette had been very grateful for the two minutes of silence that followed._

_Until Karin opened her mouth and screeched like a banshee._

_“What was that for you little bitch?”_

_She had tried to rake her too manicured nails, which were sharp enough to be considered weapons in Sakura’s opinion, across the medic’s face, and Sakura had broken her wrist in retaliation._

_“When well you learn that Sasuke doesn’t love you?” She snapped at the red head. “He doesn’t even like you. He put up with you because you could do something for him. But that was it. You’re nothing to him.”_

_“But he came for me. He fought Suna to get me out of prison.” Karin protested._

_Sakura was speechless. “What? No. Where the hell did you get that idea? Sasuke had no part in your release.”_

_“You’re lying! Sasuke would have never let Suna keep us.”_

_“Sasuke had no choice. He may have been upset that Suna was holding you. But it wasn’t because he loved you. And he certainly didn’t demand that they let you go. As a former criminal, Sasuke had no power. You were released because of me. I stipulated that Suna had to let us take you because they had no right to hold you. And I only did that because Sasuke would never want his team to rot in prison for aiding him.”_

_Sakura advanced on the shaking red head, oblivious to the dark haired man that had entered the kitchen behind her. Karin trembled violently as she stalked her like a tiger would hunt its prey._

_“Let’s make one thing perfectly clear, Karin. You are alive on my generosity. You are free on my good will. You have the opportunity to become an upstanding kunoichi because I am responsible for you.”_

_With each word Sakura spoke, Karin paled, until she was so white that her hair looked like blood against her skin. “So if you ever, try to force yourself on my teammate again, if you ever call Sai a replacement that doesn’t belong, if you ever insult Naruto or his dream again, I will kill you. I will make it look natural and no one will question your disappearance. Am I understood?”_

_Karin frantically nodded her head, scrabbling at the floor to get away from the medic. She ran from the room, and Sakura faintly heard her door slam upstairs._

_It was only then, as she turned back to operation forms that needed her approval before they could move forward, that   Sakura noticed Sasuke leaning against the kitchen counter._

_“Welcome home, Sasuke.” She smiled softly._

_And it was home. Despite having to deal with a delusional Karin, this house had become a home for Sakura. Suigetsu was crass, but that was nothing she hadn’t dealt with before, and she and Tsunade were working on a cure for Juugo. When he wasn’t enraged, Juugo was very pleasant._

_The rest of Team Seven had moved in without asking. Sakura didn’t complain because it meant she had all of her boys under one roof where she could take care of them. And they deserved to have someone to look out for them and only them._

_So Sakura didn’t nag Naruto when he asked for ramen for every meal, instead stocking the cupboards so he could have his noodles whenever he pleased, and didn’t say anything about picking up after him. She let Kakashi bring his porn into the house and packed him bentos for when he would go to the memorial. Sakura proudly displayed Sai’s artwork, claiming that they made the house warmer and no longer flew off the handle when he suggested that she pose naked for him. She meticulously took care of chores like vacuuming, dusting, washing the dishes, doing the laundry and kept the living room in top condition for the ever organized Yamato who couldn’t stand disorder and mess. And as much as it pained her and made her ears bleed, she ran interference for Sasuke, doing her best to keep Karin away from him, always made a dish containing tomatoes once a day, and slipped him C-rank assignments around Konoha._

_Sakura would do anything for her boys. She was sure that all of them but Naruto knew what she was doing, but they never asked her to stop. A little well intended fussing never hurt anyone._

_Sasuke pushed away from the countertop. In one quick movement he had tilted her head up and captured her lips. “Thank you.”_

_The kiss had only lasted seconds, but he strolled away, leaving her behind, dazed._

* * *

That wasn’t the last time she heard him say thank you. And it wasn’t the last time that she had kissed Sasuke.

In front of her the girls burst into a cacophony of questions. 

“What was it like?” and “Was that your first kiss?” and “Did Karin get mad at you for that?”

The boys, on the other hand, mimed throwing up, clutching at their stomachs and moaning and groaning, say how kissing was gross. 

“Sasuke was a wonderful kisser. What he couldn’t say with words, he let his actions speak for. With that one kiss he told me how much he appreciated everything I was doing for him.”


	8. Chapter 7

“Did you and Sasuke start dating?” one of the girls asked. “I thought you married the Sixth Hokage?”

Sakura’s heart ached painfully at the girl’s honest question. “It wasn’t anything like that. I shared a special relationship with Team Seven. Kakashi-sensei had promoted teamwork and the bonds between teammates since day one. 

“Not to say that the rest of Konoha’s senseis don’t as well,” the retired jounin assured, “but Kakashi placed more emphasis on it then most. Team Seven was more than just teammates; we were family. And the only team that ever came close to what we shared was our generations Ino-Shika-Cho.”

* * *

_Given the dark histories they shared, the boys of Team Seven connected on a level Sakura couldn’t really understand. Often times she felt like she didn’t belong._

_It was a feeling she absolutely loathed. She had put hours after hours of effort into training, struggling to step out of her teammates’ shadows and walk beside them. Equal. Useful. Needed. The early hours, long days, and countless times she collapsed from chakra exhaustion achieved the recognition she craved from them, but she was still separate._

_So, when Sasuke unexpectedly surprised her with that kiss, Sakura had immediately gone to the one person she could talk to about relationships._

_“I don’t see what the problem is, Forehead.” Ino Yamanaka’s blue eyes studied her as she picked up a piece of barbequed pork and placed it in her mouth. Chewing slowly, the blonde was mentally rehashing everything that the pinkette had shared with her._

_“Isn’t this what you wanted? To be with Sasuke?”_

_Sakura groaned. “That’s just it, Ino. I don’t want that. I haven’t wanted a relationship with him in years. I don’t love him anymore.”_

_“You never did.” Sakura looked up at her friend, startled. “Neither of us did. What we thought was love was nothing more than a teenage crush. He was cute, mysterious, and skilled. He was perfect. Naturally, you thought he was the one._

_“Then the massacre happened.” Ino sighed. “You’ve always had a soft heart, Forehead. You wanted to comfort him but were clueless how to approach him.”_

_Sakura stared at her with something akin to dawning horror. “What did you do, Ino-pig?”_

_“I manipulated you,” she admitted. “You were too shy to make the first move so I made you think that I would. I made it a competition between us because you stopped being a wallflower when you were fighting for something.”_

_The pink haired girl closed her eyes tightly. Taking even breaths to calm the urge to reach across the barbeque pit and strangle her maybe best friend, she unclenched her fists, absentmindedly healing the half-moon grooves left behind by her nails._

_“So none of it was real. My “love.” Our friendship. Our rivalry.”_

_Ino tried to speak up, but Sakura wasn’t finished. “I spent years, years, chasing after Sasuke’s affections. I hurt him. I hurt myself. I hurt Naruto.” The outrage that had coated her words cracked at the mention of her knuckleheaded teammate._

_Ino grabbed Sakura’s hand with two of her own. “Please,” she begged, “just listen. It may not have been love, but you had genuine feelings. You cared for him. I simply pushed you into thinking they were the strongest feelings they could be.”_

_The rosette pulled her hand away, dropping her chin to her chest. Studiously ignoring her once best friend (could Sakura even consider them friends at one point?), she thought about what Ino has said._

_The emotions were already present. Sakura had cared for the Uchiha before the massacre. Even without the blonde’s help she had convinced herself that he was the only guy for her. Up until the chuunin exams, she had never taken notice of any other male. They were nothing like him and therefore she wanted nothing to do with them._

_Sakura felt like clutching at her hair, and would have if she wasn’t sure it would result in her tearing more than half of it out of her scalp._

_What was she supposed to do now? Now that her feelings were not entirely her own? Now that she had no grasp on what she truly felt?_

_After what was only six minutes Sakura had made her decision._

_“What’s past is in the past. I can’t focus on what was once. I need your helping with now. If you can help me figure that out, I’ll forgive you. What did Sasuke mean by that kiss and how do I respond?” Sakura didn’t comment on Ino’s shiny eyes once she finished speaking._

* * *

The academy students broke out into a flurry of exclamations.

“She must have dated him. She loved him since forever. How could she ignore those feelings?”

“You heard her Yuzu. She didn’t actually love him.”

“Her last name is Uzumaki. Sakura-san obviously turned him down.”

“Ne, ne, calm down.” Sakura motioned with her hands for the class to settle. “I did eventually marry Naruto, but that was later.”

“So you were with Sasuke first?”

“I wasn’t having relations with anyone at that point. I asked him to meet me on the roof that night and told him in plain terms the conclusion I had come to; that I cared for him but had no wish to enter what was guaranteed to be a complicated relationship. I may have loved him once upon a time, but it was the immature love of a child that didn’t know what it meant to love.”

“What did he say? Was he upset?”

Sakura chuckled. “Not at all. He told me I was still annoying.”

She let the class grumble over that answer. There were some parts of Team Seven that were too private for her to share.  For her and Sasuke, annoying meant “you’re thinking too much, so stop.” To Sasuke, it wasn’t intended to be romantic at all. It was simply his way of saying thank you.

Of course, the second time Sasuke had thanked her in that manner, for bending the rules and sneaking him into the Uchiha clan compound, Naruto had witnessed it. Being the hot head that he was, the blonde had screamed for the whole village to hear that Sasuke was taking advantage of her and then turned around and demanded to be allowed to kiss Sakura as well when he learned why.

Sakura had the word “no” on the tip of her tongue, but Naruto had swept in and pressed his lips against hers. 

It was that moment that she knew she was screwed. After her talk with Ino, Sakura had sworn to never date one of her boys, but Naruto had ruined that. Because, with one short kiss, he had set her on fire.


	9. Chapter 8

“In what was becoming an emotional defense mechanism, I retreated. I had suffered a few emotional blows in a short period of time. I no longer knew if Ino was my friend, for she had completely messed with my feelings for Sasuke.

“And I had only just sorted out how I feel for him. I wasn’t ready for a relationship with anyone at the moment.”

Sakura paused in telling her story momentarily; remembering how conflicted Naruto’s kiss had made her feel. She had never shown any interest in the cheerful boy as a young girl. She hadn’t really taken notice of him until he returned from his three year training journey with Jiraiya.

The pinkette continued, seeing the anxious faces on the students’ faces. They were eager now, but soon her story would take a dark turn, and they wouldn’t be so excited for her to keep speaking.

“Surprisingly enough, it was Sai that made me realize that there hadn’t been any romantic overtures behind Naruto’s action.

“But that’s not important. What is important is what happened the next day.”

* * *

_Sakura was unsurprised when the Fifth Hokage sent a summons for her the next day._

_Her shishou warned her to be more discrete in her bending of the Uchiha’s regulations. She personally didn’t give a damn what her apprentice did so long as she kept the brat out of trouble, but there were members on the council that would nail Sakura to the wall if she was caught breaking the sanction Tsunade had placed upon him._

_With that out of the way, the blonde moved onto the real reason why she had called for Sakura._

_“I’ve got a mission for you. Don’t worry about your housemates. I’ve already blackmailed Kakashi into taking over for the mission’s duration.”_

_“What’s the mission?”_

_“It’s a quick one,” Tsunade said. “You shouldn’t be more than a week. I just need you to run the Land of Valleys. A man named Nanafushi stolen some of our secrets. I don’t know which ones,” she went on tersely, cutting off Sakura before the girl could ask how he had done it and what he had made away with, “but the Land of Valleys has offered to return them in exchange for a sum and lower rates on any missions the request in the next five years.”_

_Sakura flinched. That was an expensive trade. Even without the flat sum, if Konoha received C-rank pay for future missions from the Land of Valleys, the village would lose a lot of revenue. Especially since the Land of Valleys would take advantage of their agreement and exclusively contract with just Konoha for five years._

_But it was a price they had to pay to protect village secrets._

_“They stipulated that I had to send one of my apprentices.” The slug sannin poured herself a cup of sake and knocked it back. “I would have done so anyway, there’s very few of my shinobi that I would trust with a task this delicate and you’re the most diplomatic of them; the best and only choice really, but it’s odd that they would demand that.”_

_She skipped over the cup in favor of drinking directly from the bottle, the column of her throat constricting as she gulped the alcohol like it was water. “So be on your guard, Sakura.”_

_“I will, shishou.”_

_The pinkette returned to her house on the outskirts of the village. She packed the provisions she would need, her standard weapons and medic’s pouch, other staples like food with a shelf life of a week and two canteens for water, her travel documents and the letter the Hokage had given her detailing that Sakura was the expected ambassador sent to retrieve the stolen documents._

_She wasn’t required to set out until morning, so Sakura used the afternoon to make meals the boys could reheat._

_Not that they needed her to, of course. They were all capable of looking after themselves, but it made Sakura happy to take care of them. And the five of them certainly deserved to have someone that put their needs, wellbeing, and happiness as their first priority._

_Sakura didn’t mind being that person. She felt it was the least she could do for them._

_She set out early the next morning. It was a short trip to the Land of Valleys, just two days, and she worried what condition she would find the house in if she was gone an extended period of time._

* * *

“What did they do to the house while you were gone?”

“Did they burn it to the ground trying to cook?” Sakura laughed at that suggestion. Given Sai’s skills in the kitchen, she could actually see that happening.

“No, the house was fine. Its occupants were worse for wear, though.”

“How come?” a girl asked.

“That mission was nothing but trouble,” she surmised. Sometimes that mission made appearances in her nightmares. She shook her head several times to rid herself of the memories.

“The whole basis of it was a lie. There was no shinobi named Nanfushi. The Land of Valleys didn’t have any sensitive documents in their possession. They wanted Konoha to believe that so they would send a high ranking shinobi to them.”

“But why would they want that? The Land of Valleys is small and there ninja don’t amount to much.”

“They don’t have to have famous ninjas to be skilled,” Sakura lectured. “In fact, the Land of Valley’s ninja may have been more like true shinobi because they did not flaunt their skills and whip out their best moves every battle like they were party favors.”

The class was silent as the thought about what she had just told them. “They only need a few really skilled ninja to keep one captive.”


	10. Chapter 9

“The Land of Valleys wasn’t a strong nation. They were actually rather small, hidden in the valleys that peppered the Land of Rivers. Content to keep to themselves, they contacted one of the Five Great Shinobi Nations rarely.

“Given their small size, they had very few ninja. Those they did have were devoted to protecting their country. And so this scheme was born.”

Sakura looked out at the class of hopeful academy students. Now that her story had finally gained some momentum and action, they were hanging onto her every word.

One student was waving his hand wildly in an attempt to get her attention. His mouth opened as soon as she looked at him.

She held up a wrinkled hand, already knowing what question he was going to ask.

“Don’t be in such a hurry.”

* * *

_Sakura gazed forlornly at the destruction that had befallen the Land of Valleys. Not haven been there previously, she could only imagine how beautiful the land around her looked before the war. Wild flowers probably covered the hills. She could even picture children shrieking and laughing as they rolled down the mounds of earth._

_Such a small nation hadn’t stood a chance. The Land of Valleys had always been struggling for survival, located between Suna and Konoha as it was. Until Naruto had changed Gaara’s ways after the invasion, the Land of Valleys was a common battle ground whenever patrols chanced upon each other._

_Madara had no qualms razing the country to expand Amegakure as he prepared to capture all nine Bijuu._

_Seeing the devastation, the pinkette understood the Land of Valley’s desire for a mission contract. It would take all the money in their coffers to restore their homeland. They would need help to do so, from carpenters, to protection, to tilling the land and somehow procuring crops to grow._

_Konoha may have been shafted in the deal, but it was clear to Sakura that the Land of Valleys was in desperate need of assistance to recover from the war. And a war they were not even part of at that. By establishing and exclusive contract with her village, they could hire ninja that would hurry along the process of rebuilding at a low cost that wouldn’t leave their nation bankrupt._

_But she felt it was no excuse for their methods. Konoha was always open to making alliances, and Sakura was positive that Tsunade-shishou could have worked out an acceptable treaty that would provide the Land of Valleys the aid they needed without their state secrets being on the line._

_It wasn’t long afterwards that Sakura finally arrived at the only village in the Land of Valleys, Tanigakure._

_She was taken directly to their leader, who was only referred to as Leader-sama. The form of address automatically caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end. It couldn’t be Pein obviously, but the title did not bode well for her._

_Sakura tried to conceal her unease as she was ushered into the man’s office. Something felt wrong about this situation, and if she had learned anything from Naruto, it was to trust her instincts._

_Hers were currently screaming at her to Shunshin away, to turn around and run straight back to Konoha._

_But that decision was unacceptable. Tanigakure had in their possession potentially threatening secrets, and it was her duty to see them returned. So, Sakura steeled herself, and crossed over the threshold into his office._

_She bowed at the waist respectfully, careful to keep her back straight. It wasn’t much, but it as a sign that she wouldn’t let this man walk all over her and dictate the terms of their agreement. “My name is Sakura Haruno, Leader-sama. I am here on behalf of the Godaime Hokage Tsunade-sama to broker for the return of our nation’s documents.”_

_The man’s eyes, an usual blue color, so clear they were practically water, glanced distastefully at her. He took in her appearance, frowning._

_“I had expected your Hokage would send her other apprentice, but it is no matter.”_

_Sakura bit her tongue to keep from snapping at the presumptuous man. She was just as qualified as Shizune. In the shinobi world, age was no indication of skill. Konoha had several shinobi that became famous at a young age due to their extraordinary abilities._

_“Take her away,” he ordered.”_

_She stared at him baffled. Take her away? What did he mean by that? For her to stay at a hotel until he called for her?_

_The rosette wasn’t given the opportunity to ask. She was completely blindsided when the guards on either side of the doorway (why hadn’t she question why the man had guards protecting the inside of his door?), leapt into action. One restrained her hands. She heard the faint click as chakra cuffs specifically designed to keep prisoners from accessing their chakra locked in place around her wrists. The other man slammed a sweet scented cloth over her mouth and nose._

_In moments, Sakura was unconscious._

* * *

The children immediately cried out with screams of unfairness and how could Tanigakure result to such a dirty trick.

“That is the way of the ninja. To strike unseen with underhanded methods.” Sakura could see the displeasure on a handful of faces. “The strongest ninja could fall to the weakest, so long as the former is caught off guard.  Forget the fancy jutsus and unique kekkei genkai. The true power of shinobi lies in the element of surprise.”

“But Uzumaki-san, what did they do to you? Why capture you in the first place?”

Sakura exhaled lightly. “Tanigakure was in desperate need of money. Given the recent harmonious alliance between the Five Great Shinobi Nations, they couldn’t really turn me in for a bounty. Although Kumo might have paid it anyway.” She scowled at the thought. A was a difficult bastard to get along with, agreeing whole-heartedly with Kumogakure’s policy of forcefully attaining whatever jutsu they deemed fit. He just might have paid Tanigakure for her medical abilities, especially since he was still angry that Sasuke had supposedly killed his brother.

“Tanigakure had plans to ransom me. As the Hokage’s apprentice, the council would have had two options. Pay the ransom, or send another shinobi to kill me.”


	11. Chapter 10

Sakura wanted to roll her eyes at their naivety as they let out horrified gasps.

“They wouldn’t!”

“Yeah! Why not send a rescue team?”

“Konoha most certainly would. Our history is bloody, and the members of the council act in however they think best benefits the village. They had already done so once, with the Uchiha Massacre. One shinobi, even if she was the Hokage’s prized pupil, was not worth paying ransom for. Not when she could have given up secrets.”

“But you would never!”

Sakura did not say anything. Like any other Konoha shinobi, she held fast to the belief that she would protect her village and its secrets with her dying breath. But, never having been tortured for information, she could not guarantee that her lips would remain sealed.

She told the children as much, delighting in their confused faces when she announced she had never been interrogated, the delicate way to say tortured.   

“In the council’s mind,” she continued, “I was a liability. So, aware of the circumstances, the order was given. I was to be summarily executed.”

The pinkette pressed on with her story, knowing the next part of her tale would clear up the confusion the students were feeling.

* * *

_Sakura came to, slowly. Her eyelids felt crusty and weighted. She laid awake for several minutes before she even attempted to open them._

_She was greeted with a brightness so harsh she shut her eyes again. When she went to open them again, after letting the bright light filter through her eyelids, they raised slowly. Not blinded anymore, she scanned the room she was confined in._

_It was surprisingly comfortable for a cell. She actually had a cot, as opposed to just being tossed on the stone floor, and there was a window that was letting the unbearably bright sunlight into the room. It was by no means large. Long and thin, it stretched along the top of a single wall. Sakura lifted her arm, curious to see the window was large enough for it to get through, and was stopped by metal digging into her wrist._

_She twisted her spine to look at her hands, chained behind her with chakra suppressing cuffs that were linked to a short length of chain bolted to the wall. The woman gave them an experimental yank, biting her lip to stifle a gasp when a jolt of electricity coursed through her._

_Whoever had taken her captive was going to great lengths to ensure she didn’t move so much as a muscle during her imprisonment._

_Sakura observed the rest of her cell. Their second line of defense, which wouldn’t amount to much if she ever removed the metal bracelets preventing her from using chakra, was the lack of door. The cell had to have been created by a Doton user, but a rock wall would be no match for her superhuman strength._

_Nothing else stood out to her viridian eyes, but that didn’t mean anything. There could be any number of unpleasant traps just lying in wait._

_Instead of focusing on the unknown variables, Sakura turned her attention towards what she did know._

_She had been issued a mission to treat with Tanigakure, the Village Hidden in the Valleys, for sensitive information that had been stolen from Konoha. They had immediately knocked her out and locked her up, so they probably never had that information to begin with. The entire mission had been a ruse to get their hands on her._

_‘And not even me, specifically,’ she thought, recalling the village leader’s comment on how he had been expecting Shizune._

_Sakura could easily see the reasons why Shizune would have been sent. The dark haired woman had been Tsunade’s apprentice longer; therefore she should be more trusted. Not to mention, as the Hokage’s assistant, it was her responsibility to know every document she set on the blonde’s desk inside and out._

_It really would have been in Tanigakure’s favor had her shishou sent her older apprentice. Shizune was not the fighter like Sakura and Tsunade were._

_That meant that the cell she resided in was designed with Shizune in mind. Although she couldn’t rule out the possibility that they had tailored it for her once she arrived. But if that was the case, it probably wasn’t as strong as it could be. Either way, her green orbs flickered around the room, somewhere there was a weakness she could exploit._

_She just had to find it._

_And Sakura had some time to discover that weakness. Tanigakure would not send a message to Konoha about her this early. They would want to wait, to make Tsunade anxious and frantic with worry, so that when she did receive news of her condition she wouldn’t think twice about handing over the money for her safe return._

_But Tsunade would know soon that something was wrong. It didn’t even take a day to travel to Tanigakure, and even if negotiations stretched more than the anticipated day, the Hokage would know Sakura encountered trouble if she wasn’t back by the end of the week._

_Even with that knowledge, she would react immediately. By a protocol unique to Konoha, every mission was given a week’s leeway before flags were raised. If the team on the mission did not send word, at least, by the end of that seven day deadline, Konoha would not send out another team on the chance of putting the original mission in jeopardy._

_Sakura didn’t know how long she had been unconscious, but her shishou had expected her back within three days. So it wouldn’t be long before she sent out reinforcements._

_But that didn’t mean she had to sit around like a damsel in distress for the rescue team to come. All she had to do was get those thrice damned cuffs off._

_Then heads would start rolling._

* * *

“Wait a minute. Wait about the council’s order?”

“To be quite honest, the thought never crossed my mind,” Sakura answered. “I figured Tsunade-shishou would raise hell and put a stop to any such order. Plus, I was under the impression that Tanigakure would wait to send their ransom. I had been wrong it that regard.

“That letter made it to Konoha before I was awake. The council members didn’t hesitate to put Tsunade-shishou on the spot, threatening to remove her as Hokage for showing favoritism.”

Here, Sakura grinned darkly. Many students shuddered at the slight killing intent she released. “It mattered not. She apprised my team of the situation, and conveniently turned a blind to their reaction.”

 


	12. Chapter 11

“And what was your team’s reaction?” one girl asked hesitantly, afraid that the brunt of malevolent feelings in the air would be turned on her.

“They strolled right out the front gates, right in view of the guards. Actually,” Sakura chuckled just remembering Kakashi nonchalantly retelling their story, “they did it during the guard shift. So four shinobi watched Naruto, Sai, Kakashi, and Sasuke, who wasn’t supposed to leave the village for another eight months, walk right out of the village.

“Tsunade-shishou threatened the guards who informed her of the Uchiha’s infraction, so when the council came to her in an uproar about him vanishing, there was no one to say they had witnessed him leaving the village.

“Of course, since no one saw Sasuke leave, he had to be in the village,” she said coyly, to the laughter of the students. “Naruto and Kakashi, given who they are, are given a lot of leeway, and many people often forgot that Sai was a part of our team. So it was laughably easy for them to leave the village without fearing punishment. Tsunade-shishou resolutely proclaimed that she never gave Team Seven authorization to leave the village and that they were probably biting their nails in fear somewhere.”

“She can do that?” another child asked, rightfully incredulous.

Sakura shrugged casually. “Technically, no. No shinobi is supposed to leave the village without the Hokage’s permission and Tsunade-shishou was told she would be removed from her position if she assigned a team to rescue me. But Konoha is not a typical ninja village. We put high value on our individual shinobi and fight tooth and nail to recover those taken or labeled MIA.”

She smiled at the memory of her shishou. Tsunade understood that the rules were in place to prevent shinobi from coming and going as they pleased, which was a monumental security risk to a ninja village. But she also knew how important emotions and bonds were to her shinobi.

So she had no qualms sending Shizune to Team 7 with the knowledge of her kidnapping.

“Tsunade-shishou trusted that my team would bring me back safe and sound before the assassin the Council sent after me could step foot in Tanigakure.”

“Did they?” came the curious question from a girl that reminded her of Hinata.

The pinkette chuckled. “Did they ever!”

* * *

_Sakura sighed, bored. Aside from the first day she woke up, where a group of three shinobi had roughed her up and taken a picture of the mess of bruises and gashes, nothing happened. She figured the picture was meant to be proof that Tanigakure was serious about their threat to kill her if Tsunade-shishou did not pay the ransom._

_But, even for someone as miserable at poker as the Legendary Sucker, it was an awful bluff. She had received more serious injuries in practice spars with her team. For some reason, they never could keep it at the level of mock spars and light workouts._

_But, that had been yesterday. And while the pain was mildly irritating, it was not enough to distract Sakura from her boredom. The delivery of her only meal only took a minute and would offer no reprieve either._

_Which was how she came to be sighing every five minutes and glaring petulantly at the handcuffs that prevented her from using chakra. It was easy enough to curl in on herself and bring her hands down and around the front of her legs so that her cuffed wrists were in front of her, easing the stress on her shoulders._

_It was the most monotonous experience of her life. The safest political prisoner incident she had ever heard of, but monotonous nonetheless._

_Just as the pinkette was considering counting the cracks on the wall (proof that the earth user who made them did not have excellent chakra control) the ceiling of her earthen prison rumbled._

_Sakura tucked her chin into her chest to avoid the resulting dirt shower._

_Two minutes and fifty-three seconds later, the wall to her left exploded._

_“What took you so long?” She smirked at the four males in the opening. “I’ll have you know I haven’t eaten since yesterday.”_

_“What?” Naruto yelped while Kakashi and Sasuke used a fire jutsu to melt the lock of her cuffs. “How could they not feed you, Sakura-chan? We have to go to Ichiraku’s we when get back. My treat.”_

_Sakura smiled indulgently. “I agree with Dickless. You’ve lost weight. Ramen is so unhealthy that you will gain it back in a single visit,” Sai said from atop the ink eagle he had drawn to carry them home._

_Naruto and Sai fought the entire flight back about the benefits of the blond’s favorite food._

* * *

“What did Sai mean by you lost weight? One day without food isn’t enough for weight loss to occur.”

“I lost weight because I was overworking myself and the stress. Let this serve as a reminder to all of you, eating is important. All those salad diets you girls take are doing you more harm than good,” Sakura lectured, watching with narrowed eyes as the female half of the class frowned and tried to discretely eye themselves and the girls around them. “You need a balanced diet with plenty of carbohydrates and protein in order to do half of what you do as a ninja.”

The entire class fell silent. Behind her, the sensei nodded seriously.

“Did you really go for ramen?” one boy asked, curiously.

Sakura smiled brightly. “First thing we did. Teuchi-san closed down the shop for us and the five of us spent hours eating and laughing. Tsunade-shishou was furious when she found us. Apparently, Kakashi had terrified Tanigakure’s leader so badly they ran to Suna for protection.”

“But Suna’s our ally!” a young girl exclaimed.

“Yes.” Sakura said simply. “And Gaara took ruthless advantage of their stupidity. Tanigakure essentially became one of Suna’s outposts, a supply warehouse, and a checkpoint, which Konoha, as their ally, had access to. Tsunade-shishou was particularly gleeful when she sent Team Seven to Suna, ordering us to stay the night over.”


	13. Chapter 13

Sakura fell silent at this point, uncertain as to how to continue. Four years of telling her team’s story and the next part never came easy. She had made herself sick thinking about all the ways she could present it.

Truthfully, she didn’t want to talk about it. It was one of many stories wrought with emotions and highly personal. It wasn’t one of her more debilitating ones, but it was also an integral part of her story.

The Academy students chattered, hushed whispers asking why she had stopped. With a firm mental shake Sakura regained her calm.

“No one likes to acknowledge that there home is not safe,” she said abruptly. To her left, the chuunin sensei frowned. “My generation learned that lesson the hard way. We were only your age when Sand and Sound mounted an attack on our village. Fifteen when it was reduced to dirt at the bottom of a crater. We live in one of the greatest ninja villages,” here her pride was easily heard, “and for that very reason our home is never safe.”

* * *

_It had been totally unexpected._

_Sakura had been performing her rounds. She was in a bit of a hurry because she had a massive pile of paperwork waiting for her on her desk and she had to check in on Kakashi again. His Sharingan had been causing him more strain lately. He reached his threshold for how long he could use it without passing out more quickly._

_The pinkette was an excellent medic-nin. And she was damned proud of that, but she was by no means an expert on doujutsu. Eye procedures always held the highest risk, and the chance of failure rose astronomically when doujutsus were involved._

_Of course, Kakashi’s case was unprecedented. As the only person outside the Uchiha clan to have the Sharingan transplanted, Sakura didn’t have previous medical cases to look up. She didn’t consider Danzou as a similar case because he had stolen the Sharingans he had and despite have them as long or longer than her former sensei, never used them until his fight with Sasuke._

_Sakura hated not being able to help him. Hated having to face him and tell him her research had yielded no results. That the most she could do was ease his pain and temporarily soothe the irritated chakra canals feeding the Sharingan. She wondered if she should suggest removing the eye and having it retransplanted, for she knew he would never agree to have it removed permanently._

_Kakashi would die before he was parted with Obito’s eye._

_She ticked another task of her mental task list, making her way towards the elevators. Rounds finished, she had several reports and updates to read, files to organize and put away, and she wanted to read that scroll on the Mangekyou that Sasuke had lent her. She hoped, since prolonged use of the Mangekyou led to blindness, which the Uchihas had found a rather disturbing answer to, stealing the eyes of another (although Sakura supposed those involved could simply agree to swap eyeballs) that it would give her a clue as to how to help Kakashi._

_And somewhere along the way, she thought as her stomach protested loudly, she had to eat._

_It happened just as she reached the doors that lead to the stairwell. An inhuman roar shook the hospital, the sound echoing and reverberating._

_Fear ripped through her, quickly followed by adrenaline. She wrenched open the door to the stairs, forgoing them completely by leaping over the railing and dropping directly to the bottom floor. She landed lightly, punched in her override code, and threw herself through the door._

_The bottom floor of the hospital was several feet underground. It was the isolation ward. And it was where Juugo had requested they assign him, in the event of this happening. Juugo was another unfortunate case Sakura wished she could do more for._

_He had the ability to absorb natural energy latently. It was constantly being drawn into his body. It was a natural ability of his clan, but it left him prey to sporadic and involuntary rages._

_This was the first one since she and Tsunade-shishou had set to finding the man a cure, but Sakura knew what to expect. Juugo was forever warning her, afraid that he might hurt her, and even Sasuke had offered up that the Sharingan was the only way he knew calm Juugo when he was in one of his rage modes._

_Sakura raced down the hallway, fear for Juugo, who hated his helplessness in times like this, and desperation giving her feet wings. Sasuke wasn’t there, not that she thought the Council would agree to her removing the seals on his Sharingan so that he could genjutsu Juugo into submission, so her own genjutsu skills would have to be enough._

_The medic-nin thought she was prepared for what she would find in Juugo’s room. Upon sighting him, the purple-grey skin overtaking his body, eyes widening, and left arm morphing, she was hit with memories of the one time she had witness Sasuke use his Curse Mark._

_She froze, and that moment of hesitance was all Juugo need to hurl her out of the room._

_She impacted the wall. It cracked and buckled beneath her. He was on her before she had time to blink, a discolored, scaly hand latching around her throat._

_Juugo lifted her, holding her in the air easily by just the hand wrapped around her neck. Her hands automatically came up, scrabbling to remove his, but even her enhanced strength was no match._

_Her vision swam before her. Her lungs burned from the lack of oxygen, the pain building the longer she couldn’t draw breath._

_Of all the ways Sakura had imagined dying over the years, suffocation was not one of them. It was so painful. Her body was screaming out for oxygen, writhing as it tried to shake free from his grasp, but struggling only waste what oxygen she did have stored in her myoglobin and tissues._

_Her world reduced to herself and being unable to breathe, Sakura didn’t notice when a third party joined them. A singular red eye spun hypnotically, and the man caught her when Juugo dropped her._

_By that point, Sakura was already unconscious._

* * *

“Don’t stop now, Sakura-san!” several students yelled.

Sakura struggled to maintain a smile, not liking how they were treating the matter so callously. She was telling her story as a reminder that the life of a shinobi was not battle and glory, and they thought, since she was standing before them to tell it personally and not being lectured about it from a history book, that everything ended well.

Nothing was further from the truth.

Team Seven always found themselves in over their heads in trouble. But unlike the days of their youth, when they were ignorant and wearing rose colored glasses, there was no happy ending.


	14. Chapter 13

Sakura waited, not speaking a word. The longer her silence lasted the more uneasy the Academy students became. They exchanged question glances amongst each other.

“Uzumaki-san,” a young Yamanka boy probed, “aren’t you going to continue?”

“None of you understand what fear is. What loss means,” she said in lieu of answering. “The story I am sharing with you is no fairy tale. You are lucky to grow up in a time of piece. Just because I survived does not mean everything was alright.”

The class grew impossibly quieter at her pronouncement.

“That day, everything was definitely not alright.”

* * *

_Sakura knew when she woke to room packed beyond the point of comfortable of her housemates that something was wrong. She tried to speak, but all that escaped her throat was a dry wheeze._

_Naruto was at her side instantly with a glass of water, which she drank as emerald eyes scanned the room._

_Sasuke hung in a corner like a dark shadow, one knee bent and foot planted against the wall. Yamato hovered next to the door, on the side where he would not be seen by anyone who came through it. Sai was perched on the foot of her bed, sketchbook open on his lap. Karin was across the room, near the window, attempting to ignore Suigetsu._

_“Where’s Kakashi?” she rasped._

_Not one of the six people in the room would look her in the eye. Their silence was more telling than any words._

_“Is he going to be okay?”_

_“He’s dead,” Sasuke said flatly. Her jaw dropped._

_“Kakashi’s dead,” the Uchiha repeated, “because you were stupid enough to try and contain Juugo when you knew it was impossible.”_

_Sakura could only stare at him in horror. Kakashi-sensei was dead. It was her fault because she went down to the isolation ward with no way to stop Juugo. She was the reason he was dead._

_Naruto leapt to her defense. “Don’t you go blaming Sakura-chan, you teme! She was just trying to help your friend.”_

_“She was being stupid and reckless.”_

_“Stop. Please, stop.” The pinkette’s pleads went unheard over the rising voices of her teammates._

_“Dickless. Traitor. You’re upsetting Sakura.” Sai easily returned the room’s attention to her. Sasuke shrugged unapologetically._

_“How?” she asked, frightened to say any more than that one word. She didn’t want to ask if Juugo had been responsible. As horrible as she felt now, no doubt the gentle man felt worse. He always did after one of his rages, and he was so terrified of hurting her._

_Instead, Sakura had hurt him._

_“His Sharingan,” answered Tsunade, who stepped up to Sakura’s side. “The strain was too much for him. Didn’t I tell you not to tell her?”_

_The question was snapped at the room at large._

_“But Baa-chan!” Naruto complained. “She asked about him.”_

_So that’s how one of the greatest men Sakura had known died. Obito’s Sharingan had finally taken its revenge._

_Tsunade insisted that they all leave her to rest. While Karin practically flounced out, Naruto was extremely reluctant to leave. Sai was the second to last to leave; carefully tearing out the picture he had been working on and setting it on the small table at her bedside._

_Tsunade turned pointedly to stare at Sasuke, who had not evacuated his corner. “You said she’s responsible for me,” he grunted._

_Despite how rude and offhand it sounded, like he was only staying because he wasn’t allowed to be where she was not, Sakura took it for what it was. An offer to be there for her so she wouldn’t be alone while she grieved._

_The Hokage huffed but allowed it. Sakura waited until Sasuke had fallen asleep to look at the paper her artist teammate had left behind._

_Tears welled up. She was careful to hold the delicate drawing away from her so the salty liquid wouldn’t ruin it._

_It was a sketch of how they found her, she surmised. It only featured her and Kakashi, but Sai had drawn Juugo’s shadow on the wall. She and Kakashi were on the ground. He had tucked her against him, his back facing Juugo’s shadow, still looking to protect his lone female student._

_Tears splashed onto her bedding. He looked so peaceful in the picture. Happy even, that he had done as he was always promoting, protecting a comrade. Dying, before he would allow her to be harmed._

_Sakura sobbed herself to sleep that night, watched over by Sasuke who never slept for a minute._

* * *

“The funeral was three days later. Scores of ninja crowded on top of the Hokage tower to say goodbye to Kakashi Hatake.”

There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Even though these thirty kids had never known Kakashi, the pain in her voice when talking about her was so raw that they couldn’t help feel it.

After that day, Sakura had unconsciously picked up one of her sensei’s bad habits. For the longest time, she stood in front of his grave for a couple minutes, reading the words engraved on the stone over and over again.

_Those who break the rules are trash. But those who abandon their friends are worse than trash._

She repeated those words to the room. “Those are the words he lived by. Remember them. Because we are stronger when we stand together.”


	15. Chapter 14

Sakura turned her musings inward, debating which anecdote she should share next. The period of time immediately following Kakashi’s death had been onerous. But she couldn’t skim over it in favor of a happier memory. These children needed to know what they were volunteering for.

This job was not for the faint of heart. As a medic-nin, she knew the reality of their profession better than most. Being a ninja wasn’t about the glory.

It was bloody. Painful.

Sakura watched just as many shinobi die on one of her operating tables as she did during the war. With each one she had to remind herself that she could not save everyone, though that task usually fell to one of the boys.

What was most difficult about Kakashi’s death for her was that she didn’t even have the chance to save him.

“I blamed myself for his death for a long time,” she said wistfully, the academy students listening avidly. “But the sun continued to rise despite my suffering.”

* * *

_The pinkette was no longer surprised when Sasuke came to stand alongside her. She gave no sign that she acknowledged him, attention devoted to the newest name engraved on the Memorial Stone. Morbidly, she wondered how many times her sensei had stood where she was and whether or not he wondered when his turn would come or thinking that his name should already be there._

_“I didn’t mean for this to happen,” she whispered brokenly. “I just wanted to help Juugo. I thought my genjutsu would be enough. Instead I brought about the death of one of Konoha’s greatest ninja,” she bitterly finished._

_“And for what? I’m not you or Naruto. I’m nobody important, really. I deserved to die for my stupidity.”_

_Sasuke was suddenly before her, blocking the Memorial Stone from her view. Sakura detachedly observed the stiff manner in which he stood and the narrowing of his eyes. What was Sasuke’s anger compared to the guilt that was crushing her. It was certainly within his rights to be angry with her._

_Then she was on the ground. Fuzzy feelings of shock and pain broke through the shame. A hand came up to inspect the eye that had been hit. Sakura didn’t detect any breaks in the bone, though it would be swollen within the hour._

_“Stop wallowing,” growled the Uchiha. “Standing before this stone condemning yourself isn’t helping anyone, least of all yourself.”_

_“What would you know? Who have you gotten killed?” she screamed at him._

_“Plenty,” was the caustic rejoinder. “Or did you forget I helped that man wage war against the rest of the world?”_

_Sakura, who had curled in on herself at his scathing remark, snapped her eyes up to look at him. “Their deaths aren’t your fault. Madara would have attacked anyway.”_

_“Kakashi’s death wasn’t your fault, either.”_

_“But—“ her lips trembled and her eyes were wet again._

_“Forget what I said. I was wrong.” The rosette stared at him, agog. Sasuke never admitted he was wrong. “Kakashi made a choice.”_

_“To die for me.”_

_“To save you,” corrected Saske._

_Sakura snorted derisively. “What’s the difference? He’s still dead and it’s still my fault.”_

_“Kakashi knew what he was doing. He wasn’t ignorant of the damage his Sharingan was causing him. He could have chosen not to confront Juugo. But he didn’t. Kakashi chose you. Chose to help you even if it meant he died._

_“And now you have to make a choice.”_

_“To what?” she asked softly._

_“To continue to indulge your misguided self-pity by staring at a stone for three hours like our lay about sensei or to live. Move on. Don’t forget, but don’t let it consume you.”_

_Silence stretched between them after Sasuke’s speech. Sakura had never pegged him to be a motivational speaker. That was generally Naruto’s role._

_“Thank you, Sasuke.”_

* * *

“Life continued after that. My guilty conscious wasn’t easily assuaged, but with support from the rest of my team and friends I learned to put it behind me. My sensei might have died for me, but that’s because he valued his comrades.”

Sakura paused to take a sip of the water provided for her. Even at her old age, she still felt guilty that Kakashi had died protecting her. It wasn’t something she could get rid of, but she had learned to live with it.

“There is always a chance that you will die for your village. But that does not mean you cannot live today.”


	16. Chapter 15

The next part of her story was equal parts happy and sorrowful. Containing life instead of death, though the latter eventually reared its ugly head again. But, before she began, she needed to tell the students a little more about Sasuke than they learned of him from academy curriculum, which covered his tragic history, his placement on Team Seven, and his betrayal and finally return during the war.

“As you all know, after the war, Sasuke truly was the last Uchiha.” Ridiculous as it was, the pinkette had prayed often that no other psychotic relatives would pop out of the woodworks.

“One of his goals was to revive the Uchiha clan.”

_My name is Sasuke Uchiha. There are lots of things I dislike and I don’t really like anything. And. . I can’t really call it a dream. . but I have an ambition. The resurrection of my clan and. . . . to kill a certain man._

She remembered his introduction like it had been yesterday. “That had changed in the aftermath of the Fourth War. For the longest time, after his house arrest ended, tough he hadn’t moved out, Sasuke avoided the topic whenever Naruto brought it up, insisting that the Uchiha and the Sharingan would die with him, and so would some of the world’s hatred.”

Sakura sighed explosively. “But hatred is not so easily forgotten. It must be overcome.”

“So he confessed his love to you? That’s so sweet!” a girl tittered, causing the other girls in the class to burst into excited squealing. Sakura sweatdropped, having forgotten what it was like to be that age and to jump to romantic conclusions all the time.

“Not quite.”

* * *

_Sakura had felt, quite reasonably in her opinion, that nothing could surprise her anymore. Not after the last few years._

_Gai had found a mask exactly like Kakashi’s, only green, and had taken to wearing in remembrance of his Eternal Rival and Best Friend. Wonderful gesture though it was, she liked to pretend she had never seen it, and so did the rest of Konoha._

_None of her current housemates had moved out after Team Hebi’s glorified house arrest ended. At first they claimed they couldn’t leave her alone while she was still coping with their sensei’s death. But time passed and the excuses stopped coming and together they wound up buying the house and living their permanently._

_It had been six year’s since his return. Little by little, Sasuke had regained the trust of his fellow ninja, starting with those in their generation and their senseis. Aside from a couple chuunin and jounin, he hadn’t cared what the rest of the village thought of him._

_“Can I ask you a favor?”_

_Sakura paused in her writing, a summation of a surgery she had just performed, looking over her shoulder at Sasuke, who stood before her window, a stark contrast to the rest of her office._

_Sasuke rarely asked for helped._

_“Of course you can.”_

_“Would you carry a baby for me?”_

_The pinkette continued to stare at her teammate, as if still waiting for him to speak up. When she finally comprehended what he had said, she toppled out of her chair._

_“Excuse me?” was her strangled reply as she hurriedly regained her feet and approached him._

_“Would you be willing to have my baby?” he repeated evenly._

_Sakura felt faint. She thought, since he had not kissed her since the time she had told Karin off, that they had both moved on. She had, silently pining after Naruto, not that she had ever told the blond. He deserved the world, not a violent girl that punched him through walls every other day._

_“I don’t love you.”_

_The medic-nin cursed her lack of filter. Sasuke hadn’t reacted physically, but he couldn’t hide the pain that shone in his eyes._

_“That’s fine,” he said, cutting off her attempts to correct herself._

_“Fine?” she echoed._

_The last Uchiha lowered his head ever so slightly, and the setting sun cast shadows across his face. “I don’t want to get married. But I don’t want the clan to end with me. Not anymore. I can start anew; teach them the value of friendship and teamwork and creating bonds with one another.”_

_“So you want a surrogate?” Sakura’s heart calmed once she understood. Sasuke’s asocial-ness had gotten the better of him and she had misunderstood his intentions. She walked briskly over to her filing cabinets. “If that’s the case, I can suggest several women—“_

_“No. I don’t know them.”_

_Sakura frowned. “You’ll be able to meet with them.”_

_“I want you,” he said firmly. “I know you won’t be doing it for the money or the glory and wouldn’t demand to be involved in his life somehow.”_

_Only because she would be involved anyway, living in the same house and being part of Team Seven. Naruto would label himself and her the child’s honorary uncle and aunt._

_“L—let me think about it.”_

_Sasuke nodded, ducking out the window, chakra rapidly receding as he headed towards the training grounds. Sakura slumped at her desk, dug out the bottle of sake she kept in the bottom drawer, and drained it._

_Why had he suddenly changed his mind? Why did Sasuke ask her to be his surrogate? How was she going to answer him?_

* * *

“Why did you say yes?”

Green eyes flitted to the back corner of the room, where a Nara sat, surprisingly attentive.

It was true that none of the students needed to ask what her decision had been. Her son had been rather infamous; the only Uchiha with pink hair. Naruto had thought it hilarious. She had found it fitting, that he would inherit the one trait that made her recognizable.

“Because that had been Sasuke’s dream, and I had long since promised that I would become strong enough to stand beside my teammates and make their dreams reality.”


	17. Chapter 16

“Obviously, saying yes was not an easy decision to make.” The young children leaned forward in anticipation. Sakura was a mix of bemused and exasperated with their lack of patience. Had she been like that when she was their age?

“I agreed because I had come to see Sasuke as a brother. He had never asked anything of me since Naruto dragged him home.”

“What about his second team?”

“Bringing Team Hebi to Konoha was something I did for him, but not something he had approached me for,” the once rosette corrected. “He wasn’t one to ask for help.”

“I, on the other hand, wanted advice before I agreed.”

* * *

_“Sakura, dear, it’s been ages. I was starting to believe Hokage-sama had locked you in that hospital.”_

_She knew of no better person to ask for advice than her mother. From an outside, Sakura supposed her family situation was a little unusual. It wasn’t often that a ninja settled down with a civilian. But her mother had never been a combatant type shinobi. Before the war she Mebuki had been a courier nin, running messages the Hokage and Jounin Commander and the like. Now she was an instructor at the academy. Sakura had been outside the village more than her mother._

_“What’s it like, being pregnant?” Sakura had asked as mother and daughter washed and dried the dinnerware._

_The sudsy bowl slipped from Mebuki’s grasp, dropping into the sink with a loud clank, as the woman whipped around to stare at her daughter. “Are you saying you’re pregnant?”_

_Sakura had nearly choked. “NO. No I’m not. I’m just—“_

_Her mother cut her off with a crushing hug. “Just finally considering making me a grandmother. It’s about time I tell you. I didn’t even know you were seeing anyone. Who is the lucky guy?”_

_“I’m not seeing anyone,” blurted Sakura unthinkingly._

_Mebuki’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Oh?”_

_“Surrogacy.” Kami her face must be as red as a tomato. It certainly felt hot enough._

_And before she could think it might be a bad idea to share, Sakura had spilled her guts to her mother. How she realized she didn’t love Sasuke, not romantically anyway, and that she never had, but now she thought she might be in love with Naruto but didn’t think he still liked her like he had when they were gennin. Not that it wasn’t what she deserved, for being so cruel to him. And she only realized it because he had kissed her while back. But he hadn’t meant it romantically and probably had no idea Sakura had feelings for him._

_The pinkette realized her mistake when her mother had forcefully pushed her away._

* * *

“Like everyone in the know at the time, my mother had viewed Naruto as the Kyuubi in human form. The village would eventually come around to seeing the sacrifice he had had forced upon him, but my mother never forgave him.”

“Forgave him?” several students echoed.

“What did she have to forgive him for?”

“As you all know, the Akatsuki decimated our village. Pain had level it into the ground, sparing neither shinobi nor civilian. Naruto managed to talk to him, and Pain used a jutsu which revived everyone who had died that day. My father was amongst them. Irrationally, my mother blamed Naruto, and continued to hold onto the grudge even though my father was brought back to life.

“She had made my choices clear. I was either her daughter or Naruto’s whore.” Sakura ignored the stink eye Michi-sensei gave her. She wasn’t here to tell a sugarcoated fairy tale to inspire the next generation of ninja. The exact opposite in fact. Innocence was well and good, until it cost themselves their life or that of a comrade.

“I chose Team Seven. They were a part of me and I was a part of them. I chose Sasuke, who after all the grief and betrayal and lies he had faced deserved a family and the security that his clan would not die with him. I chose Naruto, who was the only member of our team who deserved everything, because he had the greatest heart of anyone and had never once considered abandoning those that were responsible for his suffering.

“Most importantly, I chose myself. This was something I could do for Sasuke, and I wanted to do it. I don’t think I ever saw him as happy as when I told him yes.”

 


End file.
